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Vincent Mancini
Vincent Santino "Vinnie" Mancini, later Don Vincent Corleone, was the illegitimate son of Santino Corleone and Lucy Mancini. Vincenzo succeeded Michael Corleone as boss of the Corleone crime family. Biography Early Years Vincent was the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone and Lucy Mancini who was born after Sonny's death. He was the grandson of Jimmy Mancini, a longtime member of the Corleone crime family. Although he was very close to his aunt, Connie, he was never treated as a real member of the Corleone family and wasn't given access to the family's criminal empire. He was known as a frequenter at the Palazzo Azzurro casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He also ran a club in Manhattan. Rivalry with Joey Zaza Joey Zasa, who headed the Corleone family in New York, offered Vincent a position in the muscle end of his family. Vincent accepted and began working for Zasa as an enforcer, despite Michael's offer to give him a job in the legitimate world. He and Zasa swiftly became enemies, particularly due to Zasa's barely masked disdain for Michael and the old ways. Despite this, Vincent endeared himself to his uncle in 1979 by trying to protect him from rival mafiosi, and the aging Don took the hot-headed, irrational, violent young man under his wing to try to redeem him, as a way to redeem his own bloody past. Before he executed Zasa during the festival he had been frequently asking Michael wether he wanted to get rid of Zasa and it annoyed Michael and once he suffered the stroke Vincent had made the plan which resulted in an successful murder of Zasa and his crew. Rise in the family Vincent saved Michael from an assassination attempt orchestrated by Zasa. With his experience on the streets, he got suspicious when Zasa and Don Altobello abruptly left the conference room, and immediately sensed a hit was underway when he felt it vibrate from the helicopter. Later that night, Michael suffered a severe diabetic stroke and was sent to the hospital. Believing that Zasa would likely take another run at Michael, Vincent got clearance from Connie to take out Zasa, and personally killed him at a street festival in Little Italy, Manhattan. This greatly angered Michael, even though Vincent used the same logic that Michael used to justify killing Virgil Sollozzo 34 years earlier. Vincent's irrepressible violent streak often angered Michael, but not nearly as much as his burgeoning romance with Michael's daughter (and Vincent's cousin) Mary. Remembering how his enemies inadvertently killed his first wife, Apollonia, Michael feared Mary would be endangered the deeper Vincent became involved in Corleone family business. This did, however, become useful to Michael, when he realized that Altobello had turned against him. Vincent was to ask Altobello's help in running away with Mary and starting his own family. After carefully avoiding Altobello's trap by refusing to hurt Michael himself, Vincent was introduced to the mastermind behind Michael's recent troubles, Don Licio Lucchesi. The New Don Despite their personal differences, Michael appointed Vincent the new Don and head of the Corleone family in 1980, allowing him to change his name to Vincent Corleone. In return for being elevated, Vincent had to end his relationship with Mary. His time spent with Michael had made him into a new man--much wiser, patient, and aware of his status as the new Don. However, he still had a violent streak, as evidenced in his first act as Don--with Michael's tacit blessing, he ordered the deaths of Gilday, Keinszig and Lucchesi in one mass slaughter. The same night the romance ended, however, Mary was killed in an assassination attempt on Michael. Vincent quickly and ruthlessly killed the assassin responsible, Mosca de Montelepre. With a heavy heart, Vincent then began his tenure as Don Corleone. Personality and traits Vincent was rash and arrogant by nature, a trait he inherited from his father Sonny. But under Michael's tutelage he matured into a pragmatic, even ruthless leader. The Godfather Part IV Vincent's story following the events of Part III is not exactly known. However, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola had imagined a fourth film to the Godfather saga, one storyline of which would encompass Vincent's reign as the head of the Corleone family. Contrary to his predecessors, Vincent was to have heavily involved the family in the drug trade and change the Corleone family into a drug cartel, driving the Corleone family back into corruption and eventual decline. His story would end with his death as a result of being hunted down and killed in a police shootout, in a manner similar to Pablo Escobar being gunned down by the Search Bloc, bringing about the fall and permanent end of the Corleone family once and for all. This proposed film, titled The Godfather Part IV or The Godfather The Final Part would also once again have flashbacks of Vito during his early years as Don, which explore the childhood days of Sonny, Fredo, Michael, and Connie, when they discover exactly the nature of their father's business, the early days of Tom Hagen, Johnny Fontane, Luca Brasi and various other Corleone associates, and Vito's first meeting and acquaintance with Hyman Roth. Several actors, including Ray Liotta, Luis Guzman, Leonardo DiCaprio and Garcia himself have all expressed interest in doing the film. According to Coppola, Puzo had composed a rough draft alternating between Vincent's reign as boss (1980 - 2005) and the "Happy Years" of the Corleone family (1926 - 1939), in a manner similar to The Godfather Part II. To date, nothing concrete have emerged from the planning of the film, and due to Mario Puzo's death in 1999, the film is unlikely to be greenlighted for production. Behind the scenes Vincent wasn't mentioned in the original novel, which clearly stated that Lucy wasn't pregnant. However, it should be noted that illegitimacy was strongly disapproved of during Sonny and Lucy's time. According to Coppola, Vincent Mancini was supposed to be seen as an amalgamation of all of the Corleone men, having Vito's cunning, Michael's ruthlessness, Fredo's sensitivity, Sonny's fiery temper and Tom's unquestioned loyalty. Mancini, Vincent Mancini, Vincent Mancini, Vincent